London & France

DAY ONE

• Depart on an overnight group flight to London

DAY TWO

• Arrive in London
• Hit the ground running with tours of Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Soho, and Shaftsbury Avenue
• In this city of nearly seven million, you’ll see everything from 12th-century fortifications to modern skyscrapers, royal parks to street art. Your Tour Director will take you through iconic sites, like the National Gallery, with an unrivaled collection of Western art that spans over seven centuries; Trafalgar Square, often used for community gatherings and political demonstrations; and Piccadilly Circus, a shopping and entertainment hub with vibrant video displays and neon signs.
• Enjoy an authentic fish and chips dinner
• Nothing could be more British than fish and chips. Did you know that there are eight “chippies” (fish and chip shops) for every McDonald’s in the country?! Your Tour Director will take you to an authentic pub for a taste of this national dish.
• Guided walk around the West End

DAY THREE

• Enjoy a full day of touring with your expert guide!
• Join a licensed local guide for an in-depth look at London, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abby, Tower Bridge to Hyde Park. You’ll see the changing of the guard (season permitting), the 14-ton bell of Big Ben, and the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, the masterpiece of London architect Christopher Wren.
• Guided tour of Windsor Castle
• Treasure hunt through Covent Garden
• Covent Garden, a former fruit and vegetable market, is one of the chicest neighborhoods in London, home to the Royal Opera House, popular shopping and tourist sites, and the world-famous Drury Lane. Your treasure hunt will see you completing exciting activities and solving tricky riddles, designed by your Tour Director to maximize your on-tour experiential learning.

DAY FOUR

• Hop the Eurostar train to Paris
• Spend your afternoon exploring the magnificent expanse of the Louvre
• The world’s largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a medieval fortress-turned-castle. Begin your tour by walking through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei in 1989 and step into another world. The Mona Lisa lives here, and the Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory. The Louvre has seven different departments to wander through, including the Egyptian collection and one of the largest collections of Greek ceramics in the world.
• Dinner in the Latin Quarter, one of the most famous boroughs in all of Paris

DAY FIVE

• Spend your morning experiencing the iconic landmarks of Paris
• Join your licensed local guide as they take you through some of the most famous sites in the world. You’ll be visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Tuileries Garden. Long ago, the Tuileries was a tile factory until Marie de Medici, the Queen of France in the early 1600s, ordered a new castle with luscious gardens. In 1871, Parisians burnt down the castle during the last French Revolution. The garden, luckily, retained its 17th-century design and has lasted as a respite for Parisians in the summer.
• Enjoy a guided excursion to the Palace of Versailles

DAY SIX

• Head out of the city towards Normandy and enjoy passing through the picturesque French countryside
• Visit the Normandy beaches and the D-Day Museum
• The D-Day landing at Normandy was an unparalleled feat of military engineering. Barges from Great Britain towed 600,000 tons of concrete across the English Channel, sinking them just off the coast of Normandy to create an artificial harbor that permitted the landing of thousands of Allied troops.
• Travel to St. Malo
• Tall granite walls surround the old town of St. Malo, once a stronghold for pirates employed by the King of France. The Saint Malo Cathedral, in the center of the old town, is a marvel of Romanesque and Gothic styles and features stained glass windows that depict city history.

DAY SEVEN

• Explore the beautiful port city of St. Malo, including an excursion to the Church of St. Vincent
• Your Tour Director will guide you through an interactive adventure to bring the colorful history of St. Malo to life. You’ll visit the Cathedral of St. Vincent, begun in the 11th century but not finished until 1987, that houses the tomb of Jacques Cartier, the founder of Quebec.
• Visit the world-famous monastery at Mont-St-Michel
• Dinner at a local creperie
• Indulge in one of France’s most delicious culinary traditions—the crêpe. These thin pancakes can be filled with almost anything, from cheese to chicken to chocolate and peanut butter.

DAY EIGHT

• Travel to the picturesque Loire Valley
• Enjoy guided visits to two fairytale castles: Château de Chenonceau andAzay-le-Rideau
• France’s aristocrats began building castles in the Loire Valley all the way back in the 11th century. A few hundred years later, their descendants renovated the palaces to become sumptuous pleasure palaces. Azay-le-Rideau is set on an island in the middle of the Indre River and mixes Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles. Château de Chenonceau was built on a series of arches over the Cher River and once served as home to Catherine de Medici.

DAY NINE

• Experience the majesty of the Chartres Cathedral on your way back to Paris
• The Chartres Cathedral was originally built to house a piece of the Virgin Mary’s veil, which is still on display inside. The Cathedral is a marvel of architecture and design, featuring over 20,000 square feet of stained glass and the only surviving medieval floor labyrinth. The faithful still arrive to the Cathedral to travel the winding 300-yard path on their knees to reach the image of paradise at the center.
• Farewell dinner cruise down the Seine
• See Paris in a whole new way from your place on a boat floating down the Seine. You’ll see the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank and the walls of the Louvre on the Right. Your guide will point out other monuments and architectural marvels as you pass.

DAY TEN

• Departure on group flight to the States